The present invention relates generally to managing communication media, and more specifically to consolidating communication media access into a single interface.
In recent years, the number of ways to contact a person has increased dramatically. In the past, people typically had only a home phone and a business phone. Today, people usually have at least two business or home phone lines, as well as a variety of other communication media at their disposal. These media include, for example, pagers, cellular phones, facsimile machines, voicemail, and E-mail. The more technologically sophisticated may even have access to video conferencing and the capability to receive video mail. Moreover, people often maintain parallel communication channels at home and at the office, such as a fax machine at each location, and a personal and business E-mail address.
This jumble of communication media presents imposing problems. First, a person must himself keep track of the various numbers or addresses associated with these media. He must also be meticulous in giving out this information to everyone he wishes to have it. It may be difficult to predict, however, who might need to contact him at a given time. For example, if a person owns a pager or cellular phone so that he may be reached in emergencies, there is no guarantee that the person needing to reach him during the emergency will have the numbers for those devices. Instead, the caller may just have the person""s business or home phone number or, worse, no number at all.
Another problem arises when the numbers and addresses corresponding to the communication media change. For example, people change jobs and receive new work phone and fax numbers and E-mail addresses; they change residences and receive new phone numbers; and they change carriers for their cellular phones or pagers which may result in different numbers. The person then has the formidable task of notifying everyone of the changes.
With all these communication channels available, another problem people face is maintaining a certain amount of privacy. There may be times when an individual does not want to be interrupted by direct contact by anyone or by particular people, such as a salesperson. Currently, there is no uniform way to channel communications to particular unobtrusive devices, such as voicemail or E-mail, or to channel communications only from certain individuals to those devices.
On the caller""s side, the number of communication media associated with a particular person causes similar problems. A caller must keep track of the various numbers and addresses of the person he is trying to reach, often not knowing if they have changed or become outdated. Also, many devices have their own operating protocols, requiring a caller to know not only the number or address of the device, but how to interact with it.
Moreover, callers may not even be aware of all the ways to contact an individual. As discussed above, in an emergency, a caller would likely want to know a person""s cellular phone number. In reality, the caller may not even know the person has a cellular phone. Or, conversely, if the caller does not have an urgent need to contact an individual, he may just want to leave a voicemail or E-mail, but does not know the appropriate number or address to access those media.
In light of the foregoing, there is a need for a system to consolidate communication media associated with an individual into a central, configurable gateway that callers can access.
Accordingly, systems and methods consistent with the present invention substantially obviate the problems and disadvantages that accompany the many modes of communication associated with an individual.
In accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described, a system consistent with this invention includes means for receiving information from a caller identifying a person to be contacted, means for presenting a list of available communication media that the caller can use to contact the person, means for receiving a selection of one of the communication media from the caller, and means for activating the selected communication medium.
Another system consistent with this invention includes means for presenting a plurality of communication media associated with a user, means for receiving settings from the user for the plurality of communication media, means for storing the settings, and means for configuring caller access to the plurality of communication media based on the settings.
A method consistent with this invention includes the steps of receiving information from a caller identifying a person to be contacted, presenting a list of available communication media that the caller can use to contact the person, receiving a selection of one of the communication media from the caller, and activating the selected communication medium.
Another method consistent with this invention includes the steps of presenting a plurality of communication media associated with a user, receiving settings from the user for the plurality of communication media, storing the settings, and configuring caller access to the plurality of communication media based on the settings.
Other features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the system and method particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.